Shameless misery post, plus advice needed

jo1972

This post is gonna be a bit of a ramble but I'm so fed up...

My car was making a strange noise yesterday so I rung the garage who came picked it up this morning. They've just rung me and said that the head gasket has gone, now I don't know if this is my fault for not topping the water up or oil (I don't even know what needs to be filled up!) or if it's something that can just go? I've only had the car for 5 months, I got rid of a year old megane that was costing me over £200 a month in DFW spirit and bought X reg Astra outright to save me money, yeah right. I have got to pay £500 to get it fixed, there's nothing I can do cos it won't drive without it being repaired. I don't know if the garage I bought it from 5 months ago have stitched me up, maybe this is something that takes a while to happen and I should've got an AA check on it before I bought it?

I am so gonna enrol in a car maintenance course in Sept!!

I'm just so p***ed off cos the money it's costing me is our spending money for our holiday to Butlins next month, it's reclaimed bank charges that I'd put by especially now I've got £100 left and there's 5 of us. Just like holidays of the past we're gonna be scared of buying drinks or snacks in case we run out of money. Don't get me wrong, I'm used to doing holidays DFW style and am really happy that I got my charges back to actually pay for a holiday outright (that's never happened before!) but just thought this time we would be able to indulge ourselves

Has anyone got any idea if this is something I can do the original garage for? Or is it my fault....

God I feel sick

jo1972

Oh and if anyone's got any fast money making tips, please feel free to spill the beans! I'm going to get onto ebay and amazon tonight and thrust the entire contents of my house onto the market, plus I'm a newbie matched better and have around £100 profit so far so I'll keep that up

Scared1980

Hello!

Sorry to hear you are having some bad luck with your car...

I bought a car second hand last year and I had it about 3 months when the exhaust fell off!!!

I took it back to where I bought it and they fixed it free of charge as it came with a 6 month warranty... I have no idea if this is a standard thing or if all used cars have to have this?? Its worth checking out though.

Sorry I can't be any more help.

Lyns
x

rayday2

Our head gasket went on our Astra a few years back, our garage said that its one of those things ours had only done about 60,000 miles but was an eco-tech engine on a W plate which had lovely new V shaped intakes so the cost was £489 ( two years ago mind!) He did say something about it is better if you put distilled water in but muppet brain here cannot remember where! Assume its something to do with coolant because the first sign of ours going was the coolant kept disappearing.

I think from watching top gear years ago you can see a milky substance or soemthing if head gaskets are going so it is possible to have an idea but whether or not you will be successful - who knows!

jo1972

Lyns, mine had a 3 month warranty so just past that - sods law huh!

Ray, when you say coolant do you mean the stuff that sprays on the windscreen cos mine run out on Sunday (I don't even know what coolant is!), the garage did mention a milky substance, god knows where I would've found that though! See I really do need to go on a maintenance course huh, I'm going to google that now!

Thanks for your replies

rayday2

NO thats screenwash lol!

Coolant is what stops your engine over heating - hence it goes through your engine (head gasket is part of that!) In winter it has anti freeze in it so that it keeps you going too.

But that now is my motor knowledge completely out lol! My husband is as useless as me he heard a strange grinding noise on our car and checked the oil and it was completely out!

shell_girl

Hello! Sorry I'm useless with cars so I can't give you any advice there- just wanted to give you a friendly word cos you sound like you're having a terrible morning.

The only advice I would give is to set your ebay auctions to finish over the weekend- late afternoon/early evening. I seem to sell much more succesfully when my auctions finish then- many more people online I suppose.

When I was a kid money was really tight for my parents. I remember they once managed to scrape enough together to take us for a monday- friday break. One of the treats of the holiday for me and my sister was being taken to the supermarket on the way and being allowed to choose crisps, sweets and biscuits for the week- these weren't really things we had all the time and so we KNEW we were on holiday! I'm just mentioning that because depending on how old your kids are you could maybe do something similar- they'll love it and you'll save a bit of cash while you're there.

Hopefully a car-genius will be along soon. Best of luck to you and I hope you have a wonderful holiday.

rayday2

DO you have any grandparents that can give spending money to the children?

We were terrible this year we had to clear the childrens savings accounts out when my MIL ended up in intensive care and we needed to pay for hotels to visit her. Not sure if they have BS accounts, we are paying them back now at £5 a month plus any survey cash I have but I felt like Robin Hood without doing the good bit. Butlins is pretty good though for having everything under one roof and they will love it!

ani*fan

Hi Jo

Just wanted to offer some sympathy. My head gasket went about a year ago and cost £500 to fix. I was told some makes of car are more likely to have this happen (my Rover being one of them) and it wasn't anything I had done.

However, I was also told that if your head gasket goes once then it will definitely go again at some point because of the way they fix it or something...(I'm not very clued up really...) and was advised to get rid of the car straight away. I didn't want to do that because I have no car loan and can't face getting one and 1 year and 20,000 miles later it is still going ok. I live in fear though that I'll get another £500 bill one day and really need to change cars soon.

Hope you have fun on holiday despite all this.

jo1972

rayday2 wrote: »

NO thats screenwash lol!

oh... :rotfl:

Thanks Shell, yes I think a visit to the supermarket on the way will be the way to go, I know the kids will enjoy it whether we've got money or not just wanted to be a bit self-indulgent for the first time ever!

Ray, my mum is really good with my kids and always gives them a bit of pocket money so that's useful, re the clearing out of the kids accounts - been there done that

Ani, I will have a word with the garage when I pick it up about this, maybe I should sell it on and buy a new one, such a shame cos I love that car

I've just had my mum on the phone, it's my 14th wedding anniversary today and she kept asking us what we what, she just rung and said she's going to put a little bit of money in my account to go towards the car bill, bless her

teabelly

When you buy a used car then normal consumer regulations apply. If you haven't done a great mileage in the car since purchase then it is likely the head gasket was starting to go when you bought the car. Failures within the first 6 months are usually assumed to be down to faults present at purchase time. This also depends on the price and advertised condition of the car. £100 sheds aren't dealt with in the same way as £5k nearly news. The 3 month warranty the garage supply is in addition to your statutory rights. The best place to ask questions about this sort of thing is the https://www.honestjohn.co.uk backroom discussion forum. I'd contact the selling garage and see what they say about making a contribution to the repair costs.

Head gaskets shouldn't be any more likely to go a second time if the cause of the initial failure is dealt with and the head skimmed flat again.